Making A Dream Reality

It is easy to dream of something. You can chart it out, draw pictures, plan and try to act out the characters. As many of us know, the reality does not always become what we had hoped and dreamed it would be. Sometimes it is really close and we are happy enough. Sometimes, it just misses completely what we expected. But there are a few occasions when it lives up to our hopes.
I have purchased several homes that needed help. Most of them I have fixed up while I lived in them, but never really planned on living there a long time. They were never my "dream" homes in progress. They were just fixers until the next fixer. Buying fixers is kind of a habit after awhile.
When Eduard and I bought this home, it was a fixer. I loved the lot it was on and the overall size of the home. It was right for the two of us. Unfortunately, there were 5 of us, so it was in reality- too small. We made do, though. The first phase of fixing up was the emergency treatment so that we could actually live there. It was really bad when we bought it.
The second phase was to turn it into a dream home. This part took lots of planning and would in time take lots of money. We started with the Kitchen because the kitchen fell apart and needed attention first. We did windows, gutted everything, re-wired, new cabinets, new floors, new ceiling, new lighting, new counters, new layout, new appliances- new, new, new. The Kitchen/dining area was about 1/5 of the house so we were on our way to making a dream home come true.
The kitchen has turned out to be a wonderful dream come true, after a few nightmare moments during the reconstruction. The appliances were not as wonderful as I had hoped they would be, and we are having to replace some of them already, but for the most part, after 7 years, I still love it.
The second big remodel adventure has been the living room. Like all of our projects, we start them and some disaster happens during the construction. The project ends up taking three years instead of three months. In the kitchen, I had a surgery during the remodel and it took me two years to finish the tile work. The baseboards ended the dining room at the seven year mark. I am still doing the touch up painting. So it was not a surprise that we would get the windows into the living room and my mom had a stroke. This took up lots of my time and there was no time to wait for construction people or cabinet people to give bids and return calls. But his year, at the two year mark, we had a bit of time to work on the house and pushed forward with the plans. Half of the bookcase/entertainment/carpet plan got mostly done in April. More of it got done in August. The end of it will probably get done in October. But so far, I am totally loving it. It is the living room I always knew this home would have. It is the dream come true.
I am waiting for the doors for the cabinets. But in the meantime, we have the most wonderful carpet and squishy padding for playing on the floor in front of the fireplace. We have places to put our "stuff" so that it looks organized and neat. It is a joy to keep it clean. It is airy and well ventilated. It is spacious and inviting.
Now that there are just the two of us, the house feels just the right size. And after almost 10 years, I still love it and want to stay here 'till the end.